Using all the available records from all the parishes in the county, and studying the Christening, marriage, and death records from each area in the county, and combining these with the information from the old wills, has made it possible to form a fair picture of the family groupings.

Some of our information is sketchy, as almost all the families apparently did not join a church parish, or joined in another county which we did not research. By looking closely at the records, it becomes apparent that the life span of the average man was only about 50 years, during the 1500's. Then in the middle of the 1600's a terrible plague (bubonic) hit middle England, taking a high toll of the Logsden family (as well as others). By the 1730's the Logsden families had moved on or pretty well died out, as there were precious few left.

I had often wondered: why would an eleven year old lad (William Logsden)leave his home in central England and embark on a 2300 mile journey to the new world? Other than for fame and fortune, and a sense of adventure, it seemed a risky business to me! But then when you see the death and famine that was taking place, is it any wonder that a father might wish to send his son as far away as he could?

We Logsdon's here in America can be grateful that William chose to come here, as there are few Logsden families left in England! I feel very privileged to have spent a week with our son, Tracy D. Logsdon, in and around Bedford, and getting to study the records first hand. We hope that this information will add to the knowledge of our family!

We found by reading the wills of the Logsden's that died in the 1500's, namely a John (of Yeilding) and John (of Roxton) that there were four early Logsden's mentioned from two separate families:

This indicates that two separate families of Logsden's probably settled near Bedford around 1500. These two could have been brothers as there were similarity of family names used in both. Since most of the "Church of England" parishes began only in the late 1400's (breaking off from the Holy Roman Catholic Church) records from before 1500 are few and are probably written in Latin or French (the principal language used in all official documents). We shall probably never know for sure where these two "early" families came from, but it is only about 80 miles to the long hills section of England to the northwest. This area translates as "Longdens" in the old English. Anything beyond this is pure speculation. Barring any major finds of ancient documents mentioning the Logsden family in or around Bedford, we may be as far as we can go in a normal search for our ancestors. Perhaps in the future, someone may hire a student of Latin to do further research.

                                          Tracy Logsdon
                                          Cowden, IL 11-01-1998

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